Temptations
by Skelo
Summary: Sequal to My Heart's a Battleground. The entertwined fates of Lief and Jasmine are not yet over, but what price will Lief pay to bring her back? The two months of planning are nearly over, soon the Tainter will be unleashed.
1. A Weapon Forged

_One week ago…_

"Jasmine! I'LL KILL YOU!!" Lief yelled and charged at her assailant before he could hurt Jasmine further. Though in his heart he knew she was going to die.

The Apprentice stood and laughed at ridiculousness Lief's unarmed resistance. It was however, time for the Apprentice to leave. Both of his hands grabbed Lief's sword and sawed it out of Jasmine's chest with an eruption of blood and clothing.

"Leave her alone!" Lief yelled and brought his left shoulder down, smashing into the Apprentice. The blow sent him flying back. At the last second the Apprentice pushed his almost horizontal legs against Lief's body. This turned him into a rotating human bullet, bearing away from Lief and Barda. He flew five…ten feet before back-flipping to the ground. All the time his hood never slipped and he kept hold of both swords.

'_What is this guy,'_Barda thought briefly before turning back to examine Jasmine's condition. She was already dead, the gods hadn't even granted her enough time to say her final words…

'_It's time to go.'_ The Apprentice thought whilst he drove his crimson blade into the ground. Muttering some words under his breath the Apprentice activated the final spell in his arsenal. Eight dark mirrors appeared, forming a perfect octagon around the Apprentice, shielding him from view. The blackness in each mirror seemed to get sucked in, like water in a whirlpool, until each mirror was crystal clear. The mirrors shattered, revealing an empty space where the Apprentice once stood…

_Three days ago…_

Lief's fist collided with a nearby wall, busting his knuckles. But the pain his right hand felt was nothing compared to the sickness in Lief's heart. They had journeyed, him and Barda, to the City of the Rats to get baby Katherine back before journeying back to Del. But they had arrived too late. Instead of finding Katherine, the found Lief's sword, half melted into the stone. The crown Lief had retrieved from the Guardian hung drunkenly from the scorched hilt, mocking him. Lief snapped; his brain physically snapped. He sent Barda away with a message to all the people of Del.

"_Tell them that I am gone, killed by the Shadowlord, just like Jasmine. After that, do what you want."_

Lief could have either gone all out insane, or he could try to beat the Shadowlord at his own game. Insanity would have been such a sweet relief, but it was a forbidden fruit for Lief. Just like the Belt, the Shadowlord had to be overcome with sorcery. So Lief gathered to pieces of the broken Belt and placed the crown of the Guardian on his head…

_Last night…_

His call had been answered. He had summoned all of the original dragons and all twelve of the statues he had animated with his Metamorphosis. Books and far flung memories from his time in Metamorphosis allowed Lief to arrive at certain conclusions.

Each statue held a tiny fraction of his soul along with a twelfth of his power. But they weren't puzzle pieces that could just be fitted back together. His soul had recovered and so had the pieces inside the statues.

He couldn't recover his power without absorbing the pieces of his soul. They had fused together, and so a new method had to be adopted.

Though the tribes of the Belt, like the Toran's, were being killed off, the dragons had yet to be affected. This made them the strongest source of Deltora's magic and faith.

Lief adapted the circle of power he had previously used to teleport the three of them to Tora. Now all Deltora held its breath, because if Lief's deductions were inaccurate (or, gods forbid, wrong) then all was lost…

_Morning…_

The pieces of the Belt, still holding their gems, lay in a perfect circle around Lief's feet, coinciding with their respective dragon. With a crown on his brow and his hand on his father's sword, Lief begun the ritual.

"By to morning sun this spell shall be wrought; and the angel of Deltora shall be born. Twelve statues, give me your powers; your souls. RETURN TO ME!" Lief activated the circle of power.

Green fire arched out of each statue and into Lief. More and more power, until Lief's body began to change. Wings grew back, feathered white. But more the just magic was coming back. Small golden orbs flew out of each statue and into Lief; but were rejected. As they tried to gain access, Lief began to wilt.

"Now! The Emerald Dragon roared and poured his fire into Lief. Each dragon did the same until the rainbow fire returned.

Then the great Gems activated and what was a storm of fire became a rotating pillar, with Lief in its centre. Feathers were singed away and steel began to run. In this hellish cocoon of fire; the Weapon was formed…


	2. Statue of Stone

Waking up was a slow process for Lief. First his right hand crunched against the broken marble, which felt like ordinary gravel. He tried to push himself up on his elbows and knees, but nearly fainted from the effort. He raised his head and tipped over from an attack of dizziness. He fell on his back, the sharp gravel digging into his spine. This was too much for Lief's battered body so it shutdown.

Lief woke up much more rapidly after his second collapse. He froze, waiting for his senses to return. Lief had only ever being concussed a few times and there weren't many experiences like it. You could control your body, but it felt like you'd left your mind and the ground behind you. This was just how it felt and Lief's brain absently wondered how he had managed to get concussed this time.

That was before his head cleared sufficiently to remember what had happened. What he had done _and_ for whom. The sadness returned, an open wound, but with it came a morbid curiosity. _'I wonder what I have become…what will I have to become to save her?'_

Lief shook his head to clear it and pushed his chest up with his hands, aware of the rubble that was stuck in his back. Brushing it off with surprising ease and little pain; Lief finally took a good long look at his right hand. Or claw, whatever it was.

The finer details of his hand were gone, replaced with smooth stone. _'It's marble,'_ Lief realised. But it moved just like his normal… _original_ hand. Filled once again with a morbid fascination, Lief found the strength to stand up and began examining himself. All marble, smooth, featureless marble. His marble was a pale green in colour, contradictory to the white marble of Tora. _'My marble… Now doesn't that sound mad? I only wish I was mad…'_

Lief's hands reached his face, and that was the most shocking transformation of all. Totally featureless, only a hint of a nose. No eyes, featureless ears and no hair. That last one shocked him more then anything. No matter how bad the transformation, Lief always thought he would keep his hair. Lief then felt down below. _'Smooth stone, not even a hint of a sex. But I can feel my carved muscles, so my body must at least look male. Wait a minuet; how do I see?!'_

Lief glanced down at the floor and gasped. Each individual pebble glowed like a small, blue star and the marble floor of Tora was a river of blue light. Lief looked around and realised that he didn't need to turn his head to see behind him. Or above him. Or below him.

'_But how…?'_ Lief walked up to a marble pillar that had being charred by the dragon's fire. The beautiful blue radiance was marred; in some places it was just gone. If he had eyes, tears would have crept into them at the sight of the pillar, for such beauty could never be restored. Lief looked around and realised something. The marble of Tora glowed blue to his 'eyes' but Lief knew they were white. _'Gods this is going to get confusing. I'm going to have to relearn all my colours.'_ But Lief could see his own body just fine. He could see every black spot in his green marble, every feature as if he was looking at them with his own eyes. No mysterious glow surrounded them; so Lief assumed that he was seeing their actual colour. _'So I can see and examine my own body, but all other stone I 'sense'. Arhh… my head's gonna explode!' _

"Just breathe Lief, breathe. You'll figure it out." _'No I bloody won't!'_

A few minuets past before Lief made his decision. He didn't know why but talking to himself made him feel more comfortable. "I'll go to the great library of Del. There I shall search for all the answers."

_'And power…'_


	3. In Search of Knowledge

Lief began his journey back to Del in the early morning. Before the sun had risen more than a line above the horizon Lief left on foot, journeying east. At least, he thought it was east. It was so difficult to figure out what was what with all the different colours. He followed what he _thought_ was the rising sun; which was blue; over what he thought were plains; which appeared red. _'At least this keeps an otherwise boring and lonely journey interesting. I can busy myself relearning all my colours and remembering how they appear to normal people. Huh; normal people. I was one not so long ago... Barda, Jasmine and I... No; stop! Only look forward or you'll go mad with grief... oh Jasmine!"_ Lief broke down and tried to cry. He really did, but of course he had no tear ducts. _'No tears, no children... What kind of monster have I become?'_

There were no answers. Funny then; in the blackest pits of one's self hate; Lief found a reason...a purpose. _'One step at a time; I will answer all these questions. First the library..."_

In Limbo, another member of the Eight was being chosen. A vampire in life, it had come closer than any to dying a true death, briefly entering the hellish part of the afterlife. Fighting tooth and nail after peering into its depths, it had absorbed part of that world. Now free of death, the mindless, but not shapeless, darkness became known as Nightmare. A twisted, black and purple knight in appearance, it spewed poisonous vapours from its not-quite-touching joints.

Its opponent was the legendary Dark Knight Sparda; the slayer of all manner of creatures. Sparda's sword was crackling blue with a myriad of sparks. A blade of both fire and lightning, it had slain countless enemies. Sparda, unlike any other member of Limbo; had never died. He just wondered in by accident and had remained trapped there for countless millennia. But the legendary Dark Night was outmatched. Nightmare's sword could triple its range in an instant, becoming long and thin like a rapier. Nightmare's blade could be broken, but it took less than a second to repair itself, drawing substance from Nightmare's own darkness. Sparda couldn't even get close. Nightmare's strength and endurance was unreal; the endless twilight of Limbo was perfect for it. The Dark Night was finally slain, and Nightmare took his blade for itself.

In the forgotten underground below the Shifting Sands where no light reached and the dead slept their final slumber, The Lord of Curses, Tarnel, was once again...experimenting. Many thought that the tiny animals of the Hive built this jewel pyramid to house themselves and their Queen. In a way they were right. But no one would have never guessed that the Queen was a human. Or a male. Tarnel had found a way almost a decade ago to make himself the Queen of the Hive, killing the previous one in the process. The Hive workers were simple creatures and easily created artificially. So long as he kept their numbers up; Tarne had complete privacy. The inside of the jewel pyramid in the centre of the Hive made the perfect hideout where he could conduct his experiments in peace.

'_However many times I do these, they never get old. Hahahaha...'_ Tarnel thoughts found their way to his face, which cracked into a large grin. Whistling a merry tune, Tarnel started the experiment.

"This is experiment number 999. Testing the Snake Curse with vampire blood. Subject is a Captain James Gant, captain of the Lady Luck and also known as the loan shark Laughing Jack. Stand by for immersion." A hovering quill and notepad wrote down everything Tarnel said, as well as the results of the experiment. Laughing Jack, looking starved and quite simply, dead, was lifted up with Tarnel's Magic and dropped into a tank of blood. A glowing ghost of a snake wrapped itself around the tank and froze in place. The tank sealed itself; now there was nothing to do but wait.

After being forced to man the oars of his own ship, Laughing Jack had been desperate for respite. When Tarnel sensed Laughing Jack's predicament, he gave him an ultimatum. Either to stay there, rowing for eternity, or die a true death and let Tarnel harvest his body. It wasn't much of a choice for Captain James; he'd accepted in an instant. Tarnel was interested in Laughing Jack because of the strength of the spell that was put on him. To keep him alive, forever, that took some serious magical strength and it will have left its mark on his body. It was Tarnel's passion to experiment with such marks and magical residue to see just how far magic could change the host. Tarnel was very excited with this experiment for two reasons. He had never seen a magical mark this strong, and it promised to produce spectacular results. He had also never tried a combination like this one. Tarnel's mutations were based on blood and a curse. The person or animal would take on the physical attributes of whatever the blood was from, but its magic would take on the attributes of the curse. Because of the near infinite combinations, Tarnel had honed the skill of predicting the outcomes of his experiments. Both the vampire and the snake used on fangs to feed and attack. Whatever the outcome of this experiment; it was going to have one hell of a bite...


End file.
